Creating an Archiving Object (Archiving Workbench) 

Use

You can either create archiving objects manually, as described in the Creating an Archiving Object section, or using the Archiving Workbench, as described here.

If you wish to use the Archiving Workbench as a tool to create your archiving object, you can save on a large amount of development. However, as is the case with manual development, you are required to check the archiving object that is generated to ensure it is correct.

Read the most up-to-date version of consulting note no. 644365 for information on essential adjustments that have to be made for the Archiving Workbench.

Prerequisites

Before you can create an archiving object with the Archiving Workbench, you must make sure the following prerequisites have been met:

·       You are authorized to develop in the SAP System.

·       You have already organized all the technical administrative data (such as the names of the package (development class) and the archiving object).

·       You have defined the business data structure for the archiving object you want to create (such as the master table, dependent tables and other dependencies).

·       You have defined the conditions determining which data can be archived for the archiving object you are creating. You have also determined which checks have to be made.

Procedure

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      1.      Start on the Easy Access screen in the Archiving Workbench by entering the transaction code AFX_WB.

      2.      Choose Project® Create.

Enter the name and description of the project you want to create. The system will then display the name of the project and an activity tree. This tree contains the following files:

¡      Preparatory Steps

¡      Program Generation

¡      Postprocessing Steps

Each file contains subfiles and activities that you must perform in order to create the archiving object.

The project name serves as a reference unit encompassing all the processing steps that are required to create an archiving object. It is technically separate from the name of the archiving object, which you enter in one of the processing steps in the Archiving Workbench. You can choose the same name for the project and the archiving object, but you cannot reuse a project name for another project.

      3.      Expand the Preparatory Steps file and the General subfile. The system will then display the activities contained in it with the following symbols:

¡      Sta tus Not Yet Executed

¡      Execute Task

¡      Display Log

¡      D isplay Documentation

      4.      Choose  Display Documentation and read the related documentation for the first activity.

      5.      Then choose  Execute Task. The system will either display the wizard that will take you through the individual processing steps or will branch to another transaction. As soon as you successfully complete a task, the system changes the status of the task to  (Processing Completed). You can find more information on the statuses in the Archiving Workbench (CA-GTF-TS-GMA) section of the SAP Library.

The project processing is protected by a lock object so that only one user can access it in change mode at a time.

      6.      Perform all the activities in the activity tree sequentially.

Note that most activities in the Preparatory Steps and Program Generation steps are based on each other and are therefore required.

However, you can skip individual activities, provided they are not required. This applies primarily to activities in the Postprocessing Steps. To determine whether a task can be skipped, select the specified text for the activity and choose  Skip. The system will display a message stating whether the task can be skipped or not. If you skip a task, the system changes its status to  Skipped. You can go back and perform the activity at any time, but are not required to do so.

For certain application-specific tasks (such as the manual postprocessing of coding), the system cannot set the status automatically. This is because it cannot determine whether you have completed the task if the task is open. In cases like this, you are taken to the corresponding transaction. When you leave the transaction, the system asks for the current status of the task. It displays the current status as well as all the possible statuses for you to make a selection.

Result

The system creates the archiving object with all the related database objects, enabling you to then execute the other, non-automated activities. You can find more information on this in the Manual Postprocessing section of the SAP Library.